What to do if you need to reach a live person at the IRS

The Taxpayer Advocate Service helps cut through red tape and resolve troublesome issues

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By

TomHerman

Trying to figure out your taxes is painful enough.

But for many taxpayers, the real nightmare begins when they try to reach a human being at the Internal Revenue Service, or try to get a timely response to a letter, in an effort to resolve a tax dispute. Critics say taxpayer service, never one of the agency’s strongest points, has deteriorated significantly amid congressionally ordered budget cutbacks that also have undermined other key areas within the embattled tax-collection agency.

If you’re stuck in an IRS bureaucratic quagmire, don’t despair. Here is one possible workaround recommended by many tax experts: Consider getting in touch with the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Headed by Nina Olson, the outspoken national taxpayer advocate, this unit may be able to help resolve thorny issues taxpayers haven’t been able to fix through usual IRS channels. Many accountants, lawyers and enrolled agents (private-sector tax specialists authorized to represent taxpayers at all levels of the IRS) say the service can often be a surprisingly valuable resource.

“In the current environment, when it is difficult to reach the IRS by phone, the taxpayer advocate’s office is a breath of fresh air,” says Jim Grimaldi, a tax partner at Citrin Cooperman, an accounting, tax and consulting firm based in New York. Grimaldi and others say the service can help in slicing through thick IRS red tape, untangling bureaucratic knots and resolving long-running issues.

Don’t expect instant miracles. Getting help still requires patience. “They’re great. They’re slow, but it’s because they’re overwhelmed,” says Megan L. Brackney, a lawyer at Kostelanetz & Fink, a New York law firm.

“Our cases have increased and our staffing has decreased,” Olson says. As a result, employees have to “juggle a lot of taxpayer needs.”

At two recent tax conferences in New York City, Sidney Kess, a tax expert and special consultant to Citrin Cooperman, asked his audiences for their reactions, positive or negative, to the advocate service. Nearly all of those who responded reported a positive experience—though some expressed disappointment at the outcome and irritation at how much time and energy their battle took.

Some said the service quality can vary significantly around the country.

The unit’s representatives deal with a wide range of taxpayer headaches. The most widespread problem is tax-related identity theft. In a typical case, a crook steals the victim’s Social Security number, and files a tax return in that person’s name, claiming a refund. The real taxpayer typically doesn’t discover the problem until he or she files later in the tax-filing season. Sorting out the thieves from the innocent victims can take many months, which can, in turn, create major problems for victims who had counted on getting their refunds promptly to pay bills.

Identity theft continued as the No. 1 reason taxpayers sought assistance from the service in fiscal 2015, Olson says. Earlier this year, Olson told lawmakers that the IRS “can do more” to prevent this problem and “to assist victims.”

In general, you may be eligible for help “if your IRS problem is causing financial difficulty or you believe an IRS procedure just isn’t working as it should,” the unit says on its website. The unit typically gives priority to “cases where taxpayers are experiencing financial hardship as a result of an IRS action or inaction,” a spokesman says. An example would be someone who may face eviction because of an IRS levy. In fiscal 2015, “the median cycle time for our closed cases was 53 days, and [the unit] was able to obtain full or partial relief for the taxpayer in 78.4% of our cases,” a spokesman says.

The unit received some 227,000 cases in fiscal 2015, an official says.

Grimaldi says the service has been helpful in a number of cases involving his firm and its clients, including a case in which an IRS officer “was not acting reasonably.” After getting the Taxpayer Advocate Service involved, he says, “the revenue officer’s approach to the case changed,” and a pay-by-installment agreement was reached. In another case, he says the service helped his firm process some amended tax returns, corrected the amount of tax assessed and helped the client set up a pay-by-installment agreement.

At separate conferences in New York recently, Olson and Darol Tucker, the advocate in Brooklyn, said they are keenly aware of taxpayer anger about the IRS’s dismal performance in handling phone calls from the public. But many at the conferences gave high marks to the Taxpayer Advocate Service and said they wished it could hire more staff.

Eric J. Engelhardt, a CPA in Melville, N.Y., praised the unit as having been “very helpful” in a large case that took many months to resolve. However, he says, “they are greatly understaffed.”

Tom Herman is a writer in New York City. He was formerly The Wall Street Journal’s Tax Report columnist. Send your comments and tax questions to taxquestions@wsj.com. Include your full name, address and phone number in case we need to contact you to get more details about your question.

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